D. Sharp.
I was born in Mckenney Texas and grew up
in Seagoville Texas.
My father was named Lonie Eugene Sharp.
He was a musician.
He used to play and sing to me and my 4 brothers and sisters.
He played the old country songs like Hank Williams, Eddie Arnold,Jim Reeves ETC.
He would play his guitar, sing and play his harmonica.
He also played piano and banjo.
One of my sisters sang in a band.One sister became a guitar player and singer.
My little brother, Rick Sharp, plays for a rock band in Mustang Oklahoma named “RAZOR” and I am a song writer and recording artist.
I decided to call my music, writings and band ” U.S. EAGLE “
My father died in a car accident in 1962.
I was 7 years old at the time.
The loss of my father was life changeing.
I became the man of the house and I had to spend all of my time taking care of my brother, sisters, and school.
We had a deep and aparent loss in our lives that we could not put our finger on.
We started drifting apart and had no common ground.
One day I took an old 45rpm record player out to the front porch and started playing beatles, and oldies rock records out loud.
Soon I had a pile of old pots and pans out there beating on them with sticks along with the record player.
The next time I found this real big old extension cord that had this big fat plug on one end.
I got my sister to bang on the pots along with the records while I sang into the end of that big extention cord plug like it was a microphone.
The next week I got my mother to buy me a cheap box top guitar and the Sharp kids band was born!
Sister on pots, me on extention cord and my little brother on box top guitar.
We was making those old records come alive!
Unfortunately , My mother lost her job at Texas Instruments and could no longer pay the mortgage on our house.
Before we knew it, we had moved to Oklahoma.
Our front porch stage was forever lost.
It seems like I snapped my fingers and turned 14.
I went to school at Bromide elementry.
Nobody there played music that I knew of but I had learned some songs on that old guitar and soon I was playing to the dogs and the bull frogs.
I played my first gig at a party one night.
The next thing I knew I was 16 years old and was hitch hikeing my way to Texas.
I met up with an old friend of mine named Bennie and met some musicians who spent some time teaching me how to play some new songs and chords.
I came back to Oklahoma and my mother bought me my first electric guitar with an amplifier.
It was a Sunburst Sears Silvertone electric with a small Silvertone amp.
Man I was rocking the house with a song by Buck Owens called ” BUCKAROO “
I joined the JOB CORPS when I was 17 to get a trade.
I graduated from Job Corps and went to work in Oklahoma City, Ok.
Little did I know that my little brother had taken that old Silvertone guitar and had learned to play himself!
I came back home for a visit and discovered that my little brother had put A BAND TOGETHER.
That was the day that I knew that I was going to play music.
I got my own place in Oklahoma City and soon my little brother was living with me.
We got our first band together and named it after a song by Cream ” STRANGE BREW “
Our first gig was at a biker bar named
“The EAGLES NEST”
That is where the name U.S.EAGLE came from.
We built light shows, sound systems and got a monster sound system together.
My little brother got maried and moved out.
Soon the band was on the rocks and soon disolved.
I was driving down the road going to Texas once more to find a band or a gig.
I saw a guy walking down the road and I stoped and asked if he wanted a ride.
We got to talking and found out that we had met when I was 14!
He was playing in a band and had played in my little 2nd home town, Connerville Oklahoma.
We went to Atoka Ok. to his brothers house and had an all night jam party!
It was great.
This guys name was Jerry Lansdale.
His brothers name was Terry Lansdale and he was a drummer!
Jerry Lansdale was a lifetime influance.
We started a country rock band named “STAGECOACH”.
For the first time in my life I was playing for a living!
I played bass in Stagecoach and loved every minute of it.
We got a band house together and life was good. The gigs were steady.
Of corse this band didn’t stay together.
For some reason Terry quit the band (another wife thing).
Being the motivated kind of die hard player that I am, I started another band.
This band was of a differant style.
This was a southern rock band and it smoked!
I named it ” THUNDERCLOUD “
It was me (D. SHARP)on rythem and lead guitar,
Meryle on second lead and rythem, Jay on bass and Terry Lansdale on drums.(wife thing resolved)
We played a few TV commercials for a club named “THE LONG BRANCH SALOON” in Oklahoma City.
We were playing for a living again!
We were playing battle of the bands contests and good paying gigs!
Although we were playing all cover tunes,
we managed to play some battle of the bands things ahead of some pretty cool bands.
The one that I remember the most was MOLLY HATCHET /BLACKFOOT and / FRANK ZAPA.
Zoo Ampatheater Ok. City.
But as always, the band broke up .
I THINK THAT PLAYING COVER TUNES IS
THE DOWNFALL OF ALL BANDS!
I have always belived that bands should only play original music and that recorded music should only be played on mechanical and electronic devices unless it is the original band playing it.
That is when I decided to become a song writer!
Writin came to me and was as natural as picking your nose.
Being the die hard that I am,
I joined another band.
This was a country band that needed a bass player named: Billy Myers and the Country Legend band.
We started playing at a club named:
“THE RED HAT CLUB”.
We got our show together there and started playing all over Oklahoma City.
© 2006 U.S.EAGLE band